Johnson Matthey has put two-thirds of its colours and coatings business up for sale to fund acquisitions in its fast-growing catalysts business. Chris Clark, chief executive, said the structural ceramics and speciality coatings unit, which operates mainly in Spain and Italy, was not core to JM's catalysts, precious metals and pharmaceuticals business. The unit, which makes glazes for tiles and crockery and is valued at about £170m ($291m) is expected to go to a southern European group such as Porcelanosa, the Spanish ceramics group.